width ofone star system?”
He was leaning over Braithewaite, shouting into his face. He straightened up and stepped back, stopping his outburst but not for an instant regretting it.
The empty plastic cup crumpled loudly in Braithewaite’s clenched fist. “I didn’t choose the ship, Captain Kirk,” he said. His face had turned nearly as pale as his colorless hair. “Federation HQ said they’d send a ship, and when the Enterprise howled in at warp nine I assumed you were it.”
“The transmission did not come from Federation Headquarters,” Spock said calmly. “Nor from Starfleet Command.” He had sat, unperturbed, through Braithewaite’s story and Kirk’s tantrum. “It did not even come from a Starbase. It came directly from Aleph Prime, with the ultimate override coding that has only been used five times, to my knowledge, in the past standard decade.”
“I honestly don’t know how that happened, Mr. Spock,” Braithewaite said.
“The override is reserved for planetary disasters, unprovoked enemy attack, or unforeseen occurrences in scientific investigation. It is not intended to help deal with petty criminals.”
Ian Braithewaite’s puppydog intensity vanished in stronger, angry determination. “Petty criminals! Aside from everything else the man’s a murderer!”
“I beg your pardon,” Spock said, in precisely the same tone he had used before. “Perhaps I misspoke myself.”
Braithewaite nodded sharply.
“It is not intended to deal with criminals at all,” Spock said. “In fact there are criminal penalties attached to its misuse—as you must know.”
Despite himself, Kirk grinned. Spock would deny it, but the science officer was inducing a far more emotional effect with cold facts than Kirk had got by shouting at the top of his lungs. Kirk hoped that somewhere, down in the repressed human half of himself, Spock was enjoying his revenge.
“But/ didn’t use the code,” Braithewaite said.
“The communication originated in your office and bore your signature.”
“If you’ve been diverted unnecessarily, I’m very sorry,” Braithewaite said with honest sincerity. “I’ll try to find out how it happened. Obviously, yes, you should never have been called on the override code.”
“Good,” Kirk said. “That’s that, then. We can be on our way.” He stood up.
Braithewaite jumped to his feet and loomed over them. “Captain, you don’t understand the problem. We’re isolated here, and official ships are few and far between. We simply haven’t got the facilities to detain anyone as ruthless and charismatic and intelligent as Georges Mordreaux. If he escaped, he could easily drop out of sight, he could even stow away on a commercial ship and get completely out of the system. There’d be nothing to stop his beginning all over again somewhere else. The man’s dangerous: he makes people believe he can fulfill their dreams! It’s essential that he be sent to the rehabilitation center before he gets a chance to deceive anyone else. If he gets away—”
“Your neck would be on the line, for one thing,” Kirk said.
Braithewaite slowly flushed. “That goes without saying.”
“Captain,” Spock said. “I believe we should accede to Mr. Braithewaite’s request.”
Astonished, Kirk faced his science officer.
“We should?”
“Yes, Captain. I believe it is vital that we do so.”
Kirk flung himself back into his chair.
“What the hell,” he said.
Ian Braithewaite wanted to bundle his prisoner off to the Enterprise immediately.
“Sorry, Mr. Braithewaite,” Kirk said. “Can’t be done. My ship isn’t any more fitted for handling dangerous criminals than Aleph is. We’ll have to make some preparations first.”
Kirk and Spock left the prosecutor’s officer and headed toward the central core of the station.
“ ‘Preparations,’ Captain? Security Commander Flynn is not likely to appreciate the critical implications of that statement.”
“Good Lord, don’t tell her I said that. It was just a convenient excuse.” He realized that he could hardly have chosen a less tactful excuse: if Flynn heard about it she would be offended, and justifiably so. Since her arrival, security had shaped up faster than Kirk would have believed possible. Kirk did not think that his status as Flynn’s commanding officer would protect him from her fierce loyalty to her people. Or from her brittle temper: it was so quick to snap that Kirk sometimes wondered if Flynn really were officer material.
“I have no reason to repeat imprudent remarks to Commander Flynn,” Spock said.
“Good,” Kirk said. “Well, I’ve never been to Aleph Prime before; I don’t see any great harm in staying for a little while, whatever the excuse.”
“You will find it most fascinating. There is a small research facility involved in growing bioelectronic crystals, which could revolutionize computer science.”
“I’ll definitely have to look into that,” Kirk said. “Mr. Spock ...”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Just exactly what’s going on? Braithwaite was ready to give up and call for another ship, obviously you realized that. I went along with you, but I’d like to know just what it is I’m going along with.”
“Indeed, Captain, I appreciate your trust.”
“Well,” Kirk said wryly, “what’s a captain for?”
“I apologize for my apparent lack of consistency. Until he mentioned the name of the ‘vicious criminal,’ I had no way of knowing that something far more complex than lawbreaking—however serious—is involved.”
Kirk frowned. “I don’t remember—Georges Mordreaux? Who is it, Spock? Do you know him?”
“I studied temporal physics under him many years ago. He is a brilliant physicist. In fact, when it became clear that we had not been diverted to deal with any sort of true emergency, the only benefit I could see from our being ordered to Aleph Prime was the possibility of discussing my observations with Dr. Mordreaux before I repeated them.”
“This must have been quite a shock to you.”
“Jim, the whole matter is absurd.” Spock collected himself instantly and continued, the model of Vulcan calm again. “Dr. Mordreaux is an ethical being. More than that, he is a theoretical scientist, not an experimental one. He was always more likely to work with pencil and paper, even in preference to a computer. Still, supposing he did branch off into experimental work, it is preposterous to think that he would endanger self-aware subjects of any species. I think it unlikely in the extreme that he has metamorphosed into an insane murderer.”
“Do you think you can prove him innocent?”
“I would like the chance to discover why he is about to be transported to a rehabilitation center with such dispatch and under such secrecy.”
Kirk did not much like the idea of meddling in the business of civilian authorities, but for one thing they had meddled with his ship and for another he was as aware as Spock that if Mordreaux entered a rehabilitation colony he would not emerge improved. He might be happier, he would certainly no longer be troublesome, but he would not be a brilliant physicist anymore, either.
“All right, Spock. There’s something weird about this whole business. Maybe your professor is being railroaded. At the very least we can nose around.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
Kirk stopped and pulled out his communicator.
“Kirk to Enterprise . Lieutenant Uhura, lift radio silence.”
“ Enterprise, Uhura here. Is everything all right, Captain?”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, but there’s no emergency. Secure from general quarters. I’ll be staying down on Aleph for a while, but you can reach me if you need me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Kirk out.” He hesitated a moment, then thought better of broadcasting his message to the Enterprise’s security commander.
“Mr. Spock, please tell Commander Flynn to back us up if Mr. Braithewaite questions the reasons for our staying here. I think a day is about as long as I can justify, but arrange a rotating skeleton crew so everybody gets some time off. Including you. And particularly Mr. Scott; he’s not to spend the layover buried in the engines.”
